Kyiv’s Darnytsky Bridge connecting Kyiv’s left and right banks has waited nearly 17 years for someone to come along and complete it.
Finally, state road agency Ukravtador says it plans to finish construction of the bridge by the end of 2021, signing a memorandum with state railway monopoly Ukrzaliznytsia on March 3 at the All-Ukrainian Forum “Ukraine 30”.
Completing this bridge, which may reportedly cost $40 million, could help fulfill President Volodymyr Zelensky’s plan to be “remembered as the president who built good roads in Ukraine” through his administration’s large-scale infrastructure program, Big Construction.
Once completed, the bridge would link Kyiv’s Darnytsia and Holosiiv districts and free up traffic flows in an increasingly congested Kyiv.
While the road traffic portion of the bridge has already been in operation since 2004, it currently lacks exit ramps for cars to merge onto the Dnipro Embankment highway in order to travel north and south.
Currently, the only option is to continue straight eastward on to the Darnytsky highway — which ends after four kilometers, forcing a driver to go out of the way if they want to travel north or south.
This might explain why the Darnytsky bridge isn’t popular among drivers — the bridge only carries a load of 80% of its capacity, opposed to other Kyiv bridges overloaded at 130%.
Construction on the bridge began in 2004, but only in 2011 did road traffic partially open on the bridge, after which Ukrzaliznytsya stopped construction. Ever since, the Darnytsky Bridge has remained on Ukrzaliznytsia’s balance sheet, even though the company has been trying to get rid of it.
A lack of resources and debts owed to the Turkish contractor Dogus Insaat are reasons the bridge was never completed.
Zhmak noted at the forum that, since Ukrzaliznytsia does not build bridges, it lacks the expertise to complete the project. As the project does not fall under its jurisdiction, Ukrzaliznytsia has repeatedly appealed to the Kyiv City State Administration on the transfer of the Darnytsia Bridge to the city’s balance for several years.
Now, Tymoshenko said work on the completion of the ramps will begin in summer 2021. But while it appears the time has finally come, completing the bridge is not a done deal — a memorandum is just a public statement of intention, not a binding contract.
First, the exact cost of the bridge on Ukrzalynitsia’s balance sheet needs to be determined before it can be transferred to the city’s balance.
Ukrzaliznytsia has debts totaling $18 million that were used to finance construction of the road component of the bridge. Ukrzaliznytsia insists the debt should be transferred to the Kyiv City State Administration, which is technically responsible for all the roads in the capital. And Ukravtodor will be the contractor to finish the bridge.
According to the Ministry of Infrastructure, the final cost of completion of the road bridge can only be determined after several cost and design evaluations. Kyivavtodor estimated the total cost of work to complete the Darnytsia Bridge at around $40 million.
The bridge has not gone through a technical audit for seven years and it is unclear in what condition the structure is. The price will also include unpaid debts and will increase with adjustments of design estimates, Kyiv’s mayor advisor Maxim Bakhmatov said last year.
And only once the balance has been transferred can work on completing the bridge begin.
Deputy Minister of Infrastructure Dmytro Abramovich told news website Ukrainska Pravda last year that only city authorities can decide to complete the exits since they are connected to roads managed by the city. That said, there were no representatives from the Kyiv City Administration to sign the memo on completing the bridge.
